Skilled jobs are sitting vacant, threatening New Zealand’s productivity and export income, employers say. They are urging the Government to let in more overseas workers. Liz McDonald reports.

From its large Christchurch factory, Hamilton Jet is turning out waterjets as fast as it can. Its products propel ferries, rescue and pilot boats, windfarm craft, and recreation vessels all over the world. The Kiwi manufacturer has half the global market in waterjet propulsion systems.

But managing director Ben Reed says despite that demand they can’t get enough skilled workers.“We’re experiencing a post-Covid boom we never expected. It’s export driven and good for the country,” he says.

The push towards clean energy and automation has boosted demand globally for certain specialist technical occupations, he says. The company has unfilled jobs ranging from living wage roles to “well into the six figures”.

“We’ve historically recruited from overseas to get the skills we need - that’s how we’ve grown. New Zealand just can’t crank out people with those skills fast enough.”

Hamilton Jet is one of many businesses increasingly struggling to find the right people since the borders closed in March 2020.

With New Zealand’s population ageing and its economy growing, the country has relied heavily on offshore recruitment to fill the skills gap.

In the year before the pandemic, 239,000 non-Kiwis came into the country on various types of temporary work visas, some for a short stay and others hoping to stay longer or eventually gain residency. That figure was just 5700 in the past year, a drop of 97.5 per cent.

While some came in under specialised skills categories, the most common occupations of those arriving pre-pandemic were restaurant managers, chefs, fruit pickers, dairy workers, personal care assistants, and carpenters and joiners.

Australian business software company Phocas established its product development hub in New Zealand last year. It now has 85 people here, with plans to at least double that number in a year, and then double it again.

But recruitment problems may mean curtailing that planned New Zealand growth. Instead, the company may establish a new office overseas, says Phocas’s chief production and technology officer, Blair Cassidy.

Cassidy says they are short of product designers, software engineers, “in fact everything, especially in those really senior roles”.

Blair Cassidy of Phocas says New Zealand is a good fit for technology businesses, but they rely on bring in people from overseas to top up their skilled workforce.

While boosting skills within New Zealand is part of the solution, that can only fill some gaps in their fast-growing industry, he says.

“Making it possible for talented people internationally to come to New Zealand is critical to the long term success of our business.

“We’re talking to people overseas who’d love to New Zealand, but they just can’t, and we don’t have visibility as to when that will change.”

Cassidy says while Phocas waits to see what happens with New Zealand’s borders, it will have to decide by the middle of this year whether to send the work offshore.

“We need to think hard about where to scale up for the future, and whether to set up an office overseas. We are in a market with huge opportunities today that may not be there in two years’ time.”

He says the growth of the IT sector should be encouraged because it “plays to New Zealanders’ strength of getting stuff done”, and brings in “almost pure profit”.

Government moves to ease the shortage since the borders closed have included offering a six-month extension to working holiday and seasonal work visas expiring in the first half of this year - a group of more than 8500 people.

Border exemptions were issued to allow in selected critical workers and their families, some for one-off jobs, while the essential skills visa period for lower paid jobs was extended from 12 to 24 months.

A one-off visa programme launched in December and running until July is giving another chance for residency to some workers with applications on hold. To qualify, applicants must have been in the country for three years, or be paid over the median wage, or have a shortage list skill.

The Government has estimated 165,000 migrants will be eligible for the scheme. As of last week, it had received 12,476 applications, of which 2338 have been approved.

Hamilton Jet’s Ben Reed says half their workers are migrants, and he enjoys the multicultural atmosphere.

Reed says they work hard to boost their local workforce. Ten per cent of the production staff are apprentices, they run intern programmes and get plenty of graduates, but cannot find enough staff with five to 10 years’ experience. They have a workforce of over 400 with 20 unfilled positions.

“We’re doing all we can.” Reed says he does not understand why the Government has stopped processing visa applications for overseas workers. He would like last year’s one-off residency scheme extended to other sectors with staff shortages.

“We’re just one of many companies with so many growth possibilities in front of us.

“To have the borders closed really is crippling. We’ve talked to the Government, but it’s very hard to get traction on this.”

The company exports 97 per cent of what it manufactures. Reed says if production falls behind and they miss delivery dates, the biggest risk is to their reputation.

“We’ve spent 30 years building that reputation. We can lose that in one project, and the next order will go somewhere else.”

In people-hungry sectors such as healthcare, hospitality and rest homes, the gap between demand for workers and supply can be large.

Retirement village operator Ryman is one of the busiest advertisers on TradeMe Jobs this week, with over 200 listings for cooks, cleaners, construction workers, caregivers and administrators.

Ryman’s corporate affairs manager David King says with villages up and down the country and new ones coming on stream, they are constantly looking for staff.

King says the Government’s existing programme to grant residency to some workers has been helpful, but they would like to see a campaign pushing New Zealand as a welcoming home for skilled migrant workers once the borders reopen.

Increasingly employers unable to find staff themselves are turning to recruitment agencies for help.

Peter Crestani, branch manager for Frog Recruitment in Wellington, says the skill shortage is the worst he’s seen in 20 years in the business.

“It’s really difficult to get experienced people. We’ve got these big infrastructure projects, but we can’t get engineers for love or money.

“Before, we’d get Kiwis returning home, but now they can’t get through the border, and we can’t entice people from overseas. Even if we get someone suitable, they can’t get the visas.”

Crestani estimates that New Zealand is short of tens of thousands of skilled workers annually. He says employers are filling gaps with staff on short-term contacts, or by poaching from other businesses, and employers are having to counter-offer to keep their staff.

“Before Covid we’d get 20 or 30 replies when we advertised a role, and half a dozen to a dozen would be OK. Now we might only get half a dozen replies, and it’s highly likely none of them are suitable.”

The flip side is that employers are able to demand better conditions, such as more flexible hours or the right to work from home, he says.

Crestani says that while Government initiatives have helped bring in more seasonal workers, the numbers have been “infinitesimal for what’s needed”.

“They’re bringing in 500 here or there, but we need tens of thousands.”

A spokesman from Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi’s office said the Government’s border exemptions had enabled thousands of workers to enter New Zealand since the border closed in March 2020.



He said the Government would “have more to say in the coming weeks about plans to reconnect New Zealand with other countries”.